By Jim Dower: Cruiserweight contender Steve Cunningham (22-2, 11 KO’s) will be fighting Troy Ross (23-1, 16 KO’s) on Saturday night for the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) title on the undercard of the middleweight title bout between IBF middleweight champion Sebastian Sylvester vs. challenger Roman Karmazin at the Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

This is IBF title that was recently vacated by former IBF cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek, who moved up in weight to fight in the heavyweight division. Cunningham, 33, previously tried to win the IBF title in December 2008 against Adamek, but lost the fight by a 12 round split decision after being knocked down multiple times in the fight from big right hands from Adamek.

Cunningham came back from that loss to beat Wayne Braithwaite by a 12 round unanimous decision in July 2009. On Saturday night, Cunningham will be facing the 34-year-old Canadian based Ross, who has been matched very selectively in his nine-year pro career.

Indeed, this fight is going to be a tremendous leap up in competition for Ross in facing Cunningham, as prior to this fight, Ross has been facing guys like Daniel Bispo, Michael Simms, Felix Cora Jr., and Kendrick Releford at this advanced stage of his career. Ross should have been facing better fighters than this a long time ago, but then again he’d be risking his impressive 23-1 record if he had been doing that.

Cunningham, in contrast, has wins over notable fighters like Marco Huck, Krzysztof Wlodarczuk, Kelvin Davis Guillermo Jones, and Sebastian Rothmann. Really, there is no comparison between the opposition that Cunningham has faced and the opponents that Ross has feasted on during his career. It’s not even close. This could be really important or it could be meaningless if Ross is able to step up to the level that Cunningham is fighting.

But it could be a big problem because Cunningham is a lot better than the guys that have been spoon fed to Ross his entire career and he’s going to have to deal with that sudden improvement in quality all at once in a sink or swim fashion. At 34, Ross is kind of old for a fighter that is just now being put in with a really quality fighter and because of that I don’t see him responding well and being able to beat Cunningham.

Ross has little power and more of a pot shot fighter. He’s not particularly fast and has problems putting his punches together in any real way. I see him having problems with Cunningham’s better power and speed. I also see the 6’3” Cunningham’s height being a big problem for the 5’11” Ross. Perhaps even more of a problem will be Cunningham’s 10” reach advantage over Ross. That’s nearly a foot of reach that Ross will be giving up in this fight and I just don’t think he can do it. Ross could find himself eating jabs all night long and helpless to land his shots against Cunningham.